PORT ADELAIDE is primed for next weekend's AFL premiership-season opener - and was match ready well before the much-questioned pre-season walkovers of Adelaide.

Club champion Darcy Bryne-Jones is echoing captain and fellow defender Tom Jonas' view that the preliminary final loss to eventual AFL premier Richmond has stoked new ambition at Alberton.

"Falling short last year, after we had not played much finals footy in the years prior, to get so close does sting. That disappointment turns into hunger," Byrne-Jones said of the fall-out of not converting a minor premiership into a grand final appearance.

"When you do get so close, you strive to go that couple of steps more in the next year."

Port Adelaide enters the season-opener against North Melbourne at the Docklands in Melbourne on Sunday, March 21 with confidence built since a major refit in 2019 rather than from just two practice games this summer.

"We have a really strong list - and it is tight for spots (in Port Adelaide's match 22)," said the 105-game Byrne-Jones. "The competition for spots is really heating up and there will be some guys who’ll be stiff to miss out in round one.

"That only improves the training standards within the group. Everyone came back (to pre-season training) this summer in really good order and the training standards have only helped us improve."

So has the work of the list-management group to secure Sydney defender Aliir Aliir to end questions on whether Byrne-Jones has enough tall support around him in the Port Adelaide defence.

"He has been great to play with; he does add a different dimension," Byrne-Jones said of the 194cm Aliir. "He is really aggressive in the air and takes his marks. He provides a real presence there. He is only going to help us improve."

Port Adelaide's shortened pre-season games amounted to just two hefty wins - by 52 points at Alberton and 71 points at Noarlunga - against 2020 AFL wooden spooner Adelaide, results that might not in retrospect carry much weight.

"It is what it is," Byrne-Jones said at Woodville Oval where he appeared as an ambassador for Variety in announcing the three-year extension to the club's charity partnership that is aligned to the Showdown rivalry with Adelaide.

"We can't do much about it or change (the pre-season fixture). We played some pretty good footy in those two games. And we are obviously looking to build on that for round one (against North Melbourne). 

"There's always little things you need to work on as a group and as individuals. We're in a pretty good position heading into round one."

Now a member of the Port Adelaide leadership group, Byrne-Jones added to his private support of team-mate Sam Powell-Pepper with a public endorsement of AFL players stepping away from the game to focus on their well-being.

Powell-Pepper and former Port Adelaide ruckman Patrick Ryder, now at St Kilda, this week moved away from their AFL clubs on personal leave.

"Mental health is very prevalent in our community at the minute and we are going to give 'Pep' the time he needs to get himself right and work with some people who are going help him," Byrne-Jones said. "It is important we give him some privacy and time to focus on himself.

"He has had the courage to come forward and let us know that he is struggling. We're putting our arms around him and reaching out to help him. We're making sure he has the structures in place to get better."

Byrne-Jones also left no doubt on Powell-Pepper's commitment to the team and the work required at Alberton where the forward-midfielder also is recovering from surgery to a broken hand.

"He trains really hard and when he is at the club, he gives everything," Byrne-Jones said. "We can't question his commitment in that area."